SOURCES
[1] THE BENEFITS OF FACEBOOK ‘FRIENDS’ SOCIAL CAPITAL AND COLLEGE STUDENTS’ USE OF ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORK SITES
There are three types of social capital
Bonding capital: the relationships a person has with friends and family, making it also the strongest form of social capital.
Bridging capital: the relationship between friends of friends, making its strength secondary to bonding capital.
Linking capital: the relationship between a person and a government official or other elected leader.
Facebook was strongest with bridging capital, and evidence suggesting it provides greater benefits to users suffering with depression and low life satisfaction.
[2] ARE FACEBOOK "FRIENDS" HELPFUL? DEVELOPMENT OF A FACEBOOK-BASED MEASURE OF SOCIAL SUPPORT AND EXAMINATION OF RELATIONSHIPS AMONG DEPRESSION, QUALITY OF LIFE, AND SOCIAL SUPPORT
This research makes a case for mostly pro the support available via Facebook ‘friends’.
“Greater social support is predictive of lower depressions and higher quality of life (QOL)” it seeks to provide empirical evidence of the support and validate such support.
It yielded a four factor solution (Emotional support, Perceived support, Instrumental support and Negative support)
It found in most of the instances Facebook Measure of Social Support FMSS was comparable to traditional measures of social support, with some caveats surrounding those in greater distress or requiring more support.
[3] ‘THERE’S A NETWORK OUT THERE YOU MIGHT AS WELL TAP’: EXPLORING THE BENEFITS OF AND BARRIERS TO EXCHANGING INFORMATIONAL AND SUPPORT-BASED RESOURCES ON FACEBOOK
This study focussed on user interviews, highlighting the previously mentioned three types of social capital found that facebook a useful channel for social support and informational resources embedded within social networks.
The report conclusions included ‘social network sites provide users with a powerful contect for accessing the resources inherent in their social networks’
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1461444812451566
[4] DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF A SOCIAL MEDIA USE INTEGRATION SCALE.
Social media use is prominent within most people's lives, traditional measurements rely on a simple quantity measurement. This study develops a more nuanced approach accepting the role of social media in life but providing additional context around the integration of social media use with other activities in an individual's life. The Social Media Use Integration Scale (SMUIS) provides such context acknowledging the usefulness and integration with other activities.
Other useful aspects of this study highlight emotional intensity to a platform itself.
[5] TOWARD AN INTEGRATED AND DIFFERENTIAL APPROACH TO THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN LONELINESS, DIFFERENT TYPES OF FACEBOOK USE, AND ADOLESCENTS DEPRESSED MOOD
This study looks into the relationship between loneliness in adolescents and different types of facebook use, highlighting that the users struggling get better over time when using the platform actively whilst passive use of facebook found users struggling got worse over time.
This study highlights the positive effect of actively posting and discussing their situation.
[6] ‘THE MENTAL HEALTH STATE OF THE WORLD REPORT 2020’
This report profiles eight different countries investigating aspects of mental health across the world, across all measures Sleep, Exercise and social interaction had a significant impact on Mental wellbeing, Integration of sleep, social interaction and exercise into a framework for healthy use of social media would be beneficial.
https://sapienlabs.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Mental-State-of-the-World-Report-2020-1.pdf
[7] THE SOCIAL CONTEXT OF WELL-BEING.
Social capital, as measured by the strength of family, neighbourhood, religious and community ties, is found to support both physical health and subjective well-being. Our new evidence confirms that social capital is strongly linked to subjective well-being through many independent channels and in several different forms.
[8] UNDERSTANDING LINKS BETWEEN SOCIAL MEDIA USE, SLEEP AND MENTAL HEALTH: RECENT PROGRESS AND CURRENT CHALLENGES
This report focuses not just on Social Medias’ effect on Mental Health but also on sleep, which has a symbiotic relationship with mental health.
This report highlights the limitation of ‘screen time’ as a measurement tool for how much Social Media affects the user, that two people can use Social Media for the exact same amount of time but if one is much more emotionally invested in what they are doing then it will stay in the thinking of that user long after they have logged off.
There is a strong fear of missing out driving the need to constantly be online, logging on late at night before bed and first thing in the morning affecting quality of sleep.
This strong connection will impact sleep which flows through into mental
health.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs40675-019-00148-9
[9] THE SOCIAL MEDIA USE INTEGRATION SCALE: TOWARD RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY
The Facebook Intensity Scale FIS has been widely used since its inception in 2013 but has been criticised by some critics. There has been suggestion of a new scale Social Media Use Integration Scale SMUIS, this was developed for use with different platforms. This study sought to validate its use on LinkedIn as well as Facebook in the African context. The report recommends more investigation of LinkedIn. The SMUIS includes two Social Media use dimensions Social Integration and Emotional Connection SIEC and Integration into Social Routines ISR
While requiring more research the initial findings highlight the integrative potential of Social Media usage.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10447318.2017.1301041
[10] ASSOCIATION OF SOCIAL MEDIA USE WITH SOCIAL WELL-BEING, POSITIVE MENTAL HEALTH, AND SELF-RATED HEALTH: DISENTANGLING ROUTINE USE FROM EMOTIONAL CONNECTION TO USE
Published in 2019 this recent study utilises SMIUS validating Positive Mental Health PMH aspects such as
“The findings of the present study suggest that people are likely to feel more social well-being as a result of routinely using and/or integrating social media use into their social routines. However, to the extent they are emotionally connected to such use, they are less likely to experience social well-being”
and from the conclusion
“While routine use was found to be associated with positive health outcomes, emotional connection was associated with negative outcomes, a finding that was observed consistently across the three health-related outcomes of interest: social well-being, PMH, and SRH”
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1090198119863768
[11] HOW SOCIAL LEARNING AMPLIFIES MORAL OUTRAGE EXPRESSION IN ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORKS
Moral outrage shapes fundamental aspects of social life and is now widespread in online social networks. Here, we show how social learning processes amplify online moral outrage expressions over time. In two preregistered observational studies on Twitter (7331 users and 12.7 million total tweets) and two preregistered behavioral experiments (N = 240), we find that positive social feedback for outrage expressions increases the likelihood of future outrage expressions, consistent with principles of reinforcement learning. In addition, users conform their outrage expressions to the expressive norms of their social networks, suggesting norm learning also guides online outrage expressions. Norm learning overshadows reinforcement learning when normative information is readily observable: in ideologically extreme networks, where outrage expression is more common, users are less sensitive to social feedback when deciding whether to express outrage. Our findings highlight how platform design interacts with human learning mechanisms to affect moral discourse in digital public spaces.
[12] FACEBOOK WRESTLES WITH THE FEATURES IT USED TO DEFINE SOCIAL NETWORKING
Likes and shares made the social media site what it is. Now, company documents show, it’s struggling to deal with their effects.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/25/technology/facebook-like-share-buttons.html
[13] FACEBOOK WHISTLEBLOWER ALLEGES EXECUTIVES MISLED INVESTORS ABOUT CLIMATE, COVID HOAXES IN NEW SEC COMPLAINT
[14] HOW FACEBOOKS ALGORITHM WORKS
Washington post explores the evolution and working of the Facebook algorithm
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/interactive/2021/how-facebook-algorithm-works/
[15] FACTORS MOTIVATING CUSTOMIZATION AND ECHO CHAMBER CREATION WITHIN DIGITAL NEWS ENVIRONMENTS
With the influx of content being shared through social media, mobile apps, and other digital sources—including fake news and misinformation—most news consumers experience some degree of information overload. To combat these feelings of unease associated with the sheer volume of news content, some consumers tailor their news ecosystems and purposefully include or exclude content from specific sources or individuals. This study explores customization on social media and news platforms through a survey (N = 317) of adults regarding their digital news habits.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2056305119847506#_i25
[16] THE RISE AND FALL OF THE ‘STOP THE STEAL’ FACEBOOK GROUP
In its short life span, it was one of the fastest growing groups in Facebook’s history and a hub for those trying to delegitimize the election.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/05/technology/stop-the-steal-facebook-group.html